Justice News

Columbus Man Sentenced For Six Armed Robberies In Four States

COLUMBUS, Ohio – William J. McBride, Jr., 49, of Columbus, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 216 months in prison for armed bank robberies in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Angela L. Byers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Field Division, William J. Ihlenfeld, II, United States Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, John E. Kuhn, Jr., Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, Kerry B. Harvey, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Joshua Minkler, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced the sentence handed down today by Senior U.S. District Court Judge James L. Graham.

According to court documents, between June 21, 2014 and August 23, 2014, McBride robbed six different federally insured banks in five different federal jurisdictions while armed with a dangerous weapon.

McBride, at gunpoint, demanded and received more than $21,000 in cash total from the banks. The defendant did not wear any disguise during the robberies, and witnesses in each location described him similarly.

On August 23, 2014, a witness reported McBride’s license plate number upon seeing the defendant flee in his vehicle after robbing the Wesbanco Bank in St. Clairsville, Ohio. Law enforcement officials discovered the vehicle was registered to McBride and subsequently arrested him later the same day in a hotel in Columbus, Ohio.

McBride pleaded guilty to six counts of armed robbery on February 2, 2015. He was also sentenced to five years supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the cooperative investigation by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in each jurisdiction, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Salvador A. Dominguez, who represented the United States in this case.